Free The Wait: Belonging to the Bear (BBW Werebear Erotic Romance) (Mates of the Walkers Book 3) by Anya Nowlan

CHAPTER ONE
     
    Tara’s neck burned under his watchful gaze. She knew he kept a close eye on her and it always made her stomach flutter with millions of butterflies. Tara bit her lip and did her very best to keep from peeking over her shoulder at the broad-shouldered, hazel-eyed devil she knew to be at the corner booth. Instead, she focused on spreading a friendly smile on her lips as she stopped to refill a cup of coffee for one of the other regulars at Mae’s Diner. Tara chatted merrily with the elderly couple, discussing the weather and the upcoming Summer Festival that everybody looked forward to. In a small town such as Auberville, Colorado, there weren’t that many things to get excited about. Any kind of festivities would do.
     
    When she spun about on her heel to head back behind the counter, she caught a glimpse of Colden, sipping on his steaming black coffee and reading the town newspaper. She bit her lip slightly, averting her eyes and busying herself with preparing another pot of coffee. If there was one thing that there was never enough of at the diner, then it was good strong coffee. Most of the people of the town were simple folk. They either worked at the nearby mine or logged for a living, meaning that there was never a shortage of tired, muscled men in loose plaid shirts and worn jeans around the only eatery for 20 miles. Tara liked the place she worked at and the people that frequented, though she had to admit that perhaps she liked Colden the best of all.
     
    She had only been living in the town for about a year, having come all the way from Chicago at her aunt’s beckoning. Auntie Mae had lost her husband to a heart-wrenching battle with cancer and now that she was alone, it kept getting more and more difficult running the small but successful diner on her own. There weren’t a lot of young people around town and she could hardly afford matching their salaries from more physically grueling work, so help was in short supply. Tara, however, had jumped at the chance. She hated living in the city and her heart had always belonged to the great outdoors, so moving to the depths of Colorado seemed like the best idea she had heard in a long, long time.
     
    Ever since starting to work for her aunt, Tara had learned to expect certain things. She expected the first eggs of the month to be three days late because the farmer was a bit of a boozer and got his first check of the month then. She also expected the cook to be a happy sing-songy nuisance every now and then, his joviality getting in the way of his work. The flash floods were a given and it didn’t scare her none to come across an animal or two on her way to work at dawn. But, most of all, she had come to expect seeing Colden Walker at the corner booth every morning at 6 sharp. He never disappointed.
     
    They had barely said a word to each other over the year, aside from careful small-talk when she brought him his meals. He didn’t strike her as particularly brooding, but there was something about him that just made her tongue-tied and more nervous than a cat in a rainstorm. Every time she looked at him, her cheeks would flush with a tint of pink and her core would tighten and twist, driving forth a hunger she had never felt for any man before. It was confusing and a bit unnerving, but she had the feeling that the man shared her nervous attraction. It was in the way he looked at her and the long lingering glimpses he gave her when he thought she wasn’t paying attention. Auntie Mae had made a bit of a game out of all of it – spot when Colden Walker is drooling over the pretty waitress again. Tara was almost expecting the dastardly old minx to start a coin jar for each glance he gave her. She kept saying that it would fill up right quick.
     
    Day in and day out, she hoped that the man would break through his shyness, or she hers, and ask her out. The sensation of her lungs seemingly contracting every time she had to share a few words with him